Brad Mcghee cover certification and its role in a DBA's career in this ebook how to become an exceptional DBA. You should probably go thru it to give you n idea about what certification means for you. You can download it from the left hand menu on this website under Books.

I'm fairly strong on the core database engine, storage engine, query processing, etc. What I'll need to focus on mainly is stuff like clustering, mirroring, service broker, CLR, XML, the stuff that's not so core, that I haven't had much experience on.

Oh, and to put things in perspective, I wrote 70-432, 70-433, 70-450, 70-451 cold, no studying at all, and I got over 850 for all of them.

I don't believe that the system enforces that you take the knowledge exam first. However, it is the cheaper of the two exams and much easier, so it would certainly make sense to do so. You can only achive the MCM certification after meeting all pre-requisites and passing both exams, so there is no benefit to taking the harder and more expensive exam first. This does mean that if you do not have both MCITP exams and you pass both MCM exams, you won't get the MCM certification until you also get both MCITP certifications.

There is no time limit placed on you in regards to when you take the second exam. It will be up to you to schedule the seond exam when you are ready. That could be days, weeks, or even months.

According to Microsoft's site, 60% pass the lab first time, with 80% passing the second time.

The MCM page specifically states the Knowledge exam must be passed before the lab. You don't find out if you have passed for up to 30 days, and you then have to wait 14 days after receiving your score before you can schedule the lab. So forget taking both of them in a week. If you fail an exam you have to wait 90 days before re-attempting it.

I am planning to study hard, upgrade my MCITP 2008 qualifications to 2011, and then take the MCM on 2011. However, anybody who holds MCM 2008 only needs to take the Knowledge exam to upgrade to MCM 2011.

At present I'm a decent all rounder but have minimal clustering experience (even though I know how it works in theory). But I am miles off MCM status. Hopefully I'll take it next year.